One Seychelles presents registration documents to Electoral Commission |13 June 2019

Mr Lucas looks on as a member of the Electoral Commission verifies the registration documents submitted by the One Seychelles team (left)

Political party working towards entering the second round of the 2020 election, St Ange says

One Seychelles, a party launched in April 2018, officially filed its registration document with the Office of the Electoral Commission yesterday.

The president of One Seychelles, former minister for tourism, civil aviation, ports and marine, Alain St Ange, handed over the necessary documents to the Electoral Commissioner Danny Lucas, at the commission’s headquarters at Aarti Chambers.

Mr Lucas noted that the Electoral Commission will undertake a verification process after which it will set a date to inform if One Seychelles has been registered as a political party or not.

For the party to be registered some documents such as the logo, colour of the party, a manifesto, and at least 100 signatures from eligible voters endorsing the party need to be in order.

“In theory, it should be a swift process. We want to finalise this as soon as possible but we cannot provide a fixed time because, if there are things that we need clarified then we will have to go back to Mr St Ange and his associates to clarify them,” Mr Lucas said.

On his part, Mr St Ange noted that “today is a memorable day for politics in Seychelles”.

He stated that with the freedom of association afforded to all Seychellois in the Constitution, One Seychelles felt that it was important for a group of Seychellois “who have grown up in Seychelles, grew up in Seychelles and who live in Seychelles” to come forward to provide the electorates with a new option.

He further remarked that his party’s strategy is not based on personal attacks but rather on a solid manifesto focused on reviving the island’s economy, help create job opportunities and transform the lives of the people.

“One Seychelles is here to explain what we want to achieve for Seychelles, we are not interested in responding to critics and accusations because these are done when you don’t have any plans on your programme – it is only then that people undertake personal attacks.”

The emphasis, he said, will be on putting Seychelles and Seychellois first.

Once it receives its registration certificate, One Seychelles expects to start its work as a fully-fledged party with district meetings in preparations for the upcoming 2020 presidential election.

Mr St Ange also confirmed that the party is working together with some other opposition parties, not including LDS.

On his chances to win the 2020 election, Mr St Ange said: “There is a wave of dissatisfaction in the country. We have to work with the large group of people who say they do not want to vote again to ensure that they work together with us. We know there is a void, we know that there is a potential and, we are working towards entering the second round of the presidential election.”